PLAN FOR A 2-DAY GRP ANNUAL CONVENTION
Sunday January 13, @08:49PM, by Mike Heichman, Suffolk County
Subject : strengthen our party
from the State Committee dept.
Summary :
Context:

1. The Green Party’s annual convention is the highest decision-making body of our party. It is the place where we do essential business like the election of officers, the endorsement of major candidates and decide important and controversial policy questions. It is the place where we have the largest number of members in attendance and also the place where we bring the occasional members, new members and allies and guests that are interested in exploring our party.

2. I believe that experience has shown that we need the time of 2-day conventions to adequately do our business. We never have enough time at State Comm. meetings to adequately do our work. We need to make more time to do the work necessary to move our party forward.

3. The work of a 2-Day Conventions should include the following:

A. Election of Officers
B. Evaluating the Work of Statewide Committees
C. Evaluation of our Campaigns-Electoral and Movement
D. Proposals
E. Important Political Discussions/Workshops
F. Skills Workshops
G. Every year we should have an in-depth examination of one of our “10 key values”
H. Meetings in Caucuses: In years past, we have had successful workshops like “Women’s Caucus & Male Allies” and “People of Color Caucus” and “White Allies”
I. Cultural Event/Fundraiser

4. Our convention is so important that we have made the excellent decision of having a permanent standing committee to do the work of planning our conventions. Sometimes our party calls for special conventions for special reasons. The Expcom was an excellent example of a one-day special convention which endorsed our 2006 slate of candidates for the statewide elections.

5. We are a political party. An important part of our political work is elections of all kinds. Municipal elections (in odd number years: 2007, 2009, etc.) in towns often happen in the early spring. Municipal city elections have preliminary elections in September and final elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. During statewide elections, especially during years when there are statewide elections, there are major efforts to gather signatures in the spring. The primary is in September and the final election is the first Tuesday in November.

6. We often spend much time at State Comm. meetings debating the date of the convention. Often conventions are planned without sufficient time for quality preparation. Given our busy electoral season, this is not a surprise; it never seems that there is an ideal time to have the convention. I believe that it will be best if we decide on a regular meeting date well in advance of the annual convention.

7. I believe that the best date to have our regularly scheduled conventions will be after the November election and before Thanksgiving for the following reasons and benefits:

A. It will not conflict with any campaign efforts since all of the electoral campaigns will be over for that year.
B. It will be an ideal time to evaluate our campaigns and movement work for the year and discuss our future plans.
C. It will be a good time to take advantage of the energy of our campaigns and invite our new activists and member to join us.
D. If this date is known in advance and becomes part of our regular process, it will become easier to publicize our convention during the year.
E. We will have plenty of time to do outreach to invite our allies and public. In years past we invited allies to have tables. We should think of having activities that will attract more of our members, allies and the public like keynote speakers.
F. We should have at least one major cultural event/fundraiser-like the David Rovics concert (2007 Convention).
G. The weather should be conducive for a convention. The hurricane season should be over. It shouldn’t be too hot and it is unlikely that there will be a serious snowstorm, but who knows?
H. The more that we will do it later than mid-November the more we will loose the energy from our recent electoral campaigns, the more we will be competing with the holiday season and the more likely that inclement weather would be an obstacle.

(I submitted this proposal for the November 17 State Comm. meeting and the proposal was not to addressed. I am asking for your feedback. I am open to changing this proposal. If you agree with this idea, I ask for your co-sponsorship.)





Text :
1. Every year the GRP will plan to have a 2-day regular convention.

2. This 2-day convention will happen every year one of the weekends after Veterans Day and before Thanksgiving.

3. The 2008 Annual Convention will either happen on November 15/16 or November 22/23.

4. The Convention Planning Committee will come up with a recommendation for a time and location at our Spring or Summer, 2008 State Comm. meeting.

5. Sometimes conditions change. Nothing in this proposal would prevent the State Comm. from deciding to modify our plans for that specific year. One possible modification would be to have a one-day convention.


Reply

• Re: PLAN FOR A 2-DAY GRP ANNUAL CONVENTION
  Thursday January 17, @06:03PM, by Mike Heichman
  > 1. Every year the GRP will plan to have a 2-day regular convention.
  >
  > 2. This 2-day convention will happen every year one of the weekends after Veterans Day and before Thanksgiving.
  >
  > 3. The 2008 Annual Convention will either happen on November 15/16 or November 22/23.
  >
  > 4. The Convention Planning Committee will come up with a recommendation for a time and location at our Spring or Summer, 2008 State Comm. meeting.
  >
  > 5. Sometimes conditions change. Nothing in this proposal would prevent the State Comm. from deciding to modify our plans for that specific year. One possible modification would be to have a one-day convention.
  >
  ***
  Mike,
  
  a) Much of your reasoning would point to the beginning of April as a good time for a convention (and takes advantage of people's thoughts about electoral/campaign experiences having matured + of the spirit of spring and an appetite for new beginnings (of signature-gathering season, for example).
  
  Of course, this would not apply to 2008 (when November might be a good time - although this is generally conference season).
  
  b) My mother often reminded me that my eyes were bigger than my stomach - what I wanted was beyond my capacities at the time. A 2-day convention involves more $ commitment (both from GRP as well as attendees) and also involves overnight planning (and more $ again). It would be great if funds were available for such things, which they currently are not. More intense fundraising would be needed to ensure the 2-day option (I'm all for more intense fundraising, as fundraising director, but we want to avoid a debt situation).
  
  c) Announcement of date and location should be done asap (and review of location options should start right after a convention, while problems in logistics or whatever are still fresh, and while interest in conventions is still fresh). I'm not suggesting this as an amendment - it's more a statement of agreement with item No. 4.
  
  I believe Nat is on the current convention planning committee - maybe he'll weigh in on this proposal.
  
  Wanda
  
  Reply
  
  
• Re: PLAN FOR A 2-DAY GRP ANNUAL CONVENTION
  Sunday January 20, @03:42PM, by Nat Fortune
  I too would prefer a two day convention, as it might offer more of interest to the general public (or at least those considering getting more involved in the GRP), provided only that there are the funds to do so.
  
  I also like the idea of having a regular, predictable date for the convention instead of tying up State Com time on the matter. As for the convention committee setting a date and location, I would be happier about that if there were additional members on the committee besides me, but it makes sense for that committee to take on that task.
  
  I don't have a strong preference for either November or April. Both seem to have good arguments in their favor. (The Democrats have their convention in June and the Republicans hold theirs soon after, so they may have decided that the summer actually works better in practice).
  
  I'm willing to cosponsor the proposal. I suggest that the actual month be the subject of amendments to this proposal.
  
  
  Reply
  
  
• Re: PLAN FOR A 2-DAY GRP ANNUAL CONVENTION
  Monday January 21, @04:48PM, by Mike Heichman, Suffolk County
  > I too would prefer a two day convention, as it might offer more of interest to the general public (or at least those considering getting more involved in the GRP), provided only that there are the funds to do so.
  >
  > I also like the idea of having a regular, predictable date for the convention instead of tying up State Com time on the matter. As for the convention committee setting a date and location, I would be happier about that if there were additional members on the committee besides me, but it makes sense for that committee to take on that task.
  >
  > I don't have a strong preference for either November or April. Both seem to have good arguments in their favor. (The Democrats have their convention in June and the Republicans hold theirs soon after, so they may have decided that the summer actually works better in practice).
  >
  > I'm willing to cosponsor the proposal. I suggest that the actual month be the subject of amendments to this proposal.
  
  -------------------------
  I apprecitate Wanda's and Nat's thoughtful comments and thank nat for co-sponsoring this approval.
  
  I agree with the following important points that have been made:
  
  1. While I believe that a 2-day convention would be preferable, I agree that it is important to be flexible and consider other factors like finance. While the goal would be to have a 2-day convention, being flexible and taking into consideration other relevant factors is more important.
  
  2. While I continue to believe that a November convention is the best option, I agree that there are legitimate reasons why others will call for a differnt month. The time of the convention should be considered as an amendment, that is open to other proposals.
  
  Mike Heichman
  >
  >
  
  Reply
  
  
• Re: PLAN FOR A 2-DAY GRP ANNUAL CONVENTION
  Monday January 21, @06:09PM, by John Andrews
  I have concerns that a two-day convention would tend to exclude all except a small group of hard-core Party members who have no family, occupational, or financial constraints that would prevent them from devoting an entire weekend to the Party. We do not have much diversity on the State Committee in some ways - such as people who have such constraints. Remember that for many people this convention will require overnight lodging, food purchases, child care (at their home), etc. If our Party is to grow and to involve the full range of people in Massachusetts, we need to make our convention as accessible as possible.
  
  I would prefer to have a well-run 1 day convention that pulled in people who were truly interested but could not (yet) find it possible to make major personal commitments. If we need more time to "get work done", we should ask more time of State Committee or the working committees. In my limited experience, not much work is done at the state convention. The convention is important in other ways such as providing a unifying statement of purpose, and the more of a burden it is to attend, the less it serves those other functions.
  Reply
  
  
• Re: PLAN FOR A 2-DAY GRP ANNUAL CONVENTION
  Friday January 25, @12:26PM, by gary hicks
  this is best addressed by a planning committee. do we have one for this year?
  Reply
  
  
• Re: PLAN FOR A 2-DAY GRP ANNUAL CONVENTION
  Saturday January 26, @03:08PM, by merelice
  I thank Mike for taking initiative about the state convention which sometimes gets back-burnered.
  
  First, I suggest this proposal be split in two: One to determine the date for this year's convention and one to consider whether it should be for two days.
  
  Re: time of convention.
  Given this year's various circumstances and demands, it seems apprpriate to set a date between November elections and Thanksgiving. Also, now is not too soon to start planning for a November convention. Given that we are likely to put out our next newsletter before the November election, that would be a good issue to promote registrations for the convention.
  
  I would suggest asking the convention committee to recommend the timing for the 2009 convention by the next statecom meeting.
  
  Re: two days.
  I have attended at least 3 two-day conventions. The most successful one was at Clark University where nice dorm suites could accommodate families at modest cost. (This is possible only when students are not in session.) Also, much careful planning had gone into that convention's agenda.
  
  Another was at Devens and another was at a camp in Ashby (the accommodations were nothing to brag about, but a camp allows recreational activities for kids and adults).
  
  Each year we vow we will plan early enough to get a good keynote speaker and/or entertainer as a draw. But the planners of each year's conventions are usually so burned out that no one wants to start planning the next convention. Stating desireable goals and implementing them haven't quite meshed.
  
  Considerations specifically for 2008:
  If we want to encourage a strong delegation from Mass. to the presidential nominating convention, this might not be the year -- either financially or in terms of volunteer resources -- to have a two-day state convention.
  
  Merelice
  
  
  Reply